Naomi Ragen is an American-born novelist, playwright and journalist who has lived in Jerusalem since 1971. Naomi has written for the Jerusalem Post and other publications in Israel and abroad, as well as to her mailing list, about Israel and Jewish issues.

Subscribe to Naomi's Blog

Enter your email address to subscribe to Naomi's blog.

Email Address

Naomi's tenth novel The Devil in Jerusalem has been chosen by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency as the number one Jewish book of the season.
The story - inspired by true events - is a chilling tale of the paths that so easily lead us astray, and the darkness within us all.
Click the book’s cover to learn more.

Naomi has published ten internationally best-selling novels, and is the author of a hit play (Women's Minyan) that has been performed more than 500 times in Israel's National Theatre (Habimah) as well as in the United States and Argentina.
An Orthodox woman, feminist and iconoclast, Naomi is a tireless advocate for women's rights in Israel, waging a relentless campaign against domestic abuse and bias in rabbinical courts, as well as a successful Supreme Court case against gender segregation on Israeli buses.
With her tenth novel, The Devil in Jerusalem, Naomi continues her ground-breaking exploration of women in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish world she began in 1989 with Jephte's Daughter, followed by Sotah and The Sacrifice of Tamar.
Naomi is a sought-after lecturer all over the world. If your group is interested in hosting Naomi, please click here.

May 2017 – The Polish translation of Devil in Jerusalem is published as Nic Nie Mów.

April 2017 – Naomi speaks about her books at the Ivan M. Stettenham Library at the Streicker Centre in New York City.

March 2017 – Naomi tours the Paris region to speak about her new book Les Soeurs Weiss, the French translation of The Sisters Weiss.

January 2017 – Naomi is interviewed by Valérie Abécasis on French Channel 24‘s Culture program. The interview (in French) begins at the 4:00 minute mark.

December 2016 – Les Soeurs Weiss, the French translation of The Sisters Weiss, is published.

7 October 2014 –
Naomi’s ninth novel, The Sisters Weiss, was published in paperback. It’s the story of two sisters from an ultra-Orthodox family in 1950s Brooklyn who take very different paths, and then find their lives unexpectedly intersecting again forty years later. To order the book from Amazon, click the book cover above.

December 2013 - Watch an interview (in French) with Naomi about her struggle against the haredi war on women in Israel.
Watch an interview (in French) with Naomi about Le Serment.
December 2013 - Naomi visited Île-de-France to promote her new book Le serment (the French translation of The Covenant).

15 March 2012 - Sotah was published in Italian as L'amora proibito. Read a
review (in Italian).March 2012 - Jephte's Daughter was published in an Italian paperback edition, as Una moglie a Gerusalemme.October 2011 - The Ghost of Hannah Mendes was published in French as Le Fantôme de Dona Gracia Mendes.
Read a
review (in French).October 2011 - The Tenth Song was published in paperback.
May 2011 - Four-time Tony nominee Tovah Feldshuh directed a staged reading of Women's Minyan at New York's Westside Theater. The reading was produced by One Circle Productions, in partnership with Safe Horizon.

November 2013 - The Covenant was published in French as Le serment.
November 2013 - Watch an interview with Naomi by Sharon Mor of Shaulina Productions about Naomi's new book The Sisters Weiss in Hebrew or in English.
6 November 2013 - Israel's Supreme Court reversed the District Court's decision against Naomi in the Sarah Shapiro case and ordered Shapiro to return the money she was awarded. Naomi agreed that the money be donated to charity.
October-November 2013 - Naomi toured the US, visiting twelve US cities and speaking about her new book, The Sisters Weiss.
October 2013 - Naomi's ninth novel, The Sisters Weiss, was published. Read an article about it in the San Diego Jewish World.
August 2013 - Chains Around the Grass was published in an Amazon Kindle edition. July 2013 - An interview with Naomi about her trips to Spain to research her best-selling The Ghost of Hannah Mendes was featured in Jewish Travel.
December 2012 - Naomi's play Women's Minyan was performed by the West Boca Theatre Company at the Levis JCC in Boca Raton, Florida.
November 2012 - Naomi visited Île-de-France speaking about her books.
5 November 2012 - Naomi spoke at the Cockfosters and North Southgate Synagogue in London, England.

Naomi Ragen Vindicated in “Almost Total Victory”

Friends, here is a report from Friday’s English language edition of Haaretz, Israel’s most respected newspaper, explaining what the Supreme Court ruling in my favor really means.

Writer Ragen vindicated in plagiarism court deal
by Maya Sela

A compromise agreement that represented an almost total victory for best-selling author Naomi Ragen was reached in the Supreme Court copyright violation suit against her. Then Jerusalem District Court Judge Joseph Shapira [now State Comptroller] had found in favor of author Sarah Shapiro, ruling that Ragen had violated Shapiro’s copyright. Ragen then appealed to the Supreme Court.

On Wednesday, however, both women accepted a compromise suggested by the Supreme Court. Under the deal, the District Court’s verdict will be annulled and Shapiro will have to return the NIS 97,000 in compensation that the lower court ordered Ragen to pay her. Ragen, for her part, promised to donate this money to charity, and also promised that any future edition of her book Sotah will exclude 29 sentences that were the focus of the dispute.

In her appeal, Ragen’s attorneys Tamir Gluck and Yaron Hanin pointed to a long list of flaws in the District Court’s verdict. They argued that “the District Court’s pedantic, rigid application of copyright law deals a death blow to creative freedom and the possibilities for authors to create and enrich literary culture.”

“Even William Shakespeare made use of existing elements in his work King Lear,” noted the appeal.

Moreover, it said, the lower court’s verdict “deviated from well-established legal rulings adopted in the enlightened Western world.” For instance, they noted, courts in both Britain and the United State had rejected similar suits against famous authors, concluding that the defendants had made fair use of fragments taken from other works, citing a British suit against Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, and a New York case involving J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame.

“This is a nightmare that has ended,” Ragen told Haaretz yesterday. “I’m very happy that the truth has come to light. What was always important to me was my reputation. I’ve fought so hard for women and against all the distortions in the religious world, so when people accuse me of an ugly act like this and vilify me, it’s a tragic irony.

“Every time my grandson saw in the newspaper that his grandmother was a thief … it’s impossible to describe a feeling like this, when you see how it affects your family,” she continued.

“I knew I was innocent, that I hadn’t done anything against the law, and that every author does exactly what I did. I finally feel as I can continue to use my strength for important things, and to continue my war against all the things the haredi world does to women.”

Just to recap, this is the second time the Supreme Court has overturned a decision by the same judge against me. Both suits were brought by the same lawyer. Details of the first time are here and here and here.

As for the claims made against me by Ms. Shapiro – a haredi woman who wrote a self-help book in which she describes in great detail her abusive behavior toward her children and her repeated attempts to control her violent temper – I can only repeat what I’ve said earlier.

Ms. Shapiro claimed she’d invented such scintillating phrases as “I’m sorry” or “perfectly behaved little angels.” I claimed these were commonplace clichés, and I had a perfect right to use them. But in the spirit of compromise, and in order to put an end to more than twenty years of harassment by her, including leaving messages on my answering machine before Yom Kippur that I would burn in Hell, I agreed. I guess I could write: “Gee, I regret that”, or “amazingly disciplined darlings” instead. As one of the Supreme Court Justices said: “It doesn’t seem like any of those phrases are very important to Mrs. Ragen’s book.”

Two “coincidences”:

These lawsuits were all filed (by the same lawyer) shortly after I began a vocal campaign against the gender-segregated buses (קווי מהדרין) in which women are forced to sit in the back of the bus and I became one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Egged bus company and the Ministry of Transportation demanding that this demeaning practice be stopped.

The judge who ruled against me twice and whose decisions were both overturned by the Supreme Court was soon afterwards elected State Comptroller (מבקר המדינה) with the full support of all the haredi political parties. A smart career move?

Related

5 comments to Naomi Ragen Vindicated in “Almost Total Victory”

read 2 novels in paperback years ago then for years tried to find out who wrote them. turns out one was sotah. & I bought it & re-read it, bought it by accident from an amazon preview. now sent for the rabbXXEi’s wife (?), reading it with pleasure now, very funny.

Chazak Chazak!! I have always enjoyed your books, reread, and articles, posted them all. Have never for a moment questioned your innocence. I’m so glad this pettiness is over and you can do what you do best, write some of the most wonderful books in the world. Thanks Naomi.

As a fellow writer, I have long been a distant admirer of your work–on the page and in life. I am delighted by your “almost total victory” and saddened only that you had to submit to silly compromise. Of course, far sadder is the disheartening drive of the haredim to impose their views, values, and life choices on others.

Keep up the good fight and know you have many supporters and admirers.

Naomi, I’m thankful for this decision. I never felt that you had done anything wrong and I’ve continued – and always will – to read and RECOMMEND to my friends anything you write. I love your writing style, your honest and especially, your integrity. Thankfully, the nightmare is over for you and your family – I’m sorry that Ms. Shapiro is such an angry, confused person. Blessings and great writing…continue.

Dear Naomi
I never believed a word of it and I defended you when I heard someone say otherwise.
I am very happy to hear that you have been vindicated. Unfortunately our courts here in Israel are far from perfect. However, they are our courts!
Looking forward to reading anything else you write
Regards
Sarah Goodman
Haifa